Dynamic Feedback and Scoring of Transcription of a Dictation

ABSTRACT

An automated system and method for transcription of a dictation presents a transcription exercise to a student that allows continuous student keyboarding of text while providing real time feedback of correct, incorrect, and misplaced characters as well as visually pointing out the location of missing letters and missing words. The real time designation is shown using differences in typeface style or color and using a scoring system that factors in substantially all keystrokes. Not only is final correctness assessed, but also the difficulty in getting to the final state of correctness is assessed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to co-pending U.S. Provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 62/185,252 titled “Dynamic Feedback and Scoring ofTranscription of a Dictation”, filed on Jun. 26, 2015 the disclosure ofwhich is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

PATENTS CITED

The following documents and references are incorporated by reference intheir entirety, Hammerschmidt (US Pat. Pub. No. 2013/0177891).

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The presently disclosed subject matter relates to educational systemsand methods for transcription of a dictation, more particularly toeducation systems and methods for languages and literacy.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Dictation has long been used in the language learning classroom. Ateacher reads a passage aloud and the student must write down what isheard to the best of their ability. The teacher may repeat the passagemore than once. The student's transcription is then presented to theteacher for correction, or a correct transcription is shown to thestudent for self-correction. Dictation exercises have been adapted tocomputer-assisted learning. For example, existing systems present adictation exercise via audio files. In a typical scenario the student ispresented with an audio passage and asked to type in a transcription. Insome systems the student can listen to the passage as many times as theywant. Once the student feels they have transcribed the passage to thebest of their ability by typing on a computer keyboard, they press the“check” button and are presented with feedback that compares theiranswer with the correct answer.

A response of a current system might be to display the graded text in afeedback window to the student with correct and incorrect text indifferent fonts, font sizes or letter colors. Correctly entered wordsmight be shown as regular black script. Incorrectly entered words(including misspelled versions of the required words) might be shown asitalicized blue superscript with a superimposed strikethrough. Correctlyspelled words missing from the user input might be shown, inserted intothe correct position in the sentence, as red and italicized. This systemdoes not give the student “real time” feedback that allows them toadjust their answer as they work. Further, once feedback is given, itfully reveals the right answer; a preferable method would be to displaywhere the student is correct and where they have erred, allowing them tocontinue engagement with the exercise, and to continue makingadjustments as they strive for a perfect transcription. In other words,the system does not give the student an opportunity to correct theirwork in an incremental manner.

At least one, newer, more sophisticated system does provide dynamicfeedback as the student types. One way this is done is to start byshowing the user a series of input boxes corresponding to thetranscription phrase, one box per word, with the box length being a hintas to the number of letters in the respective word. Once a student typesin a word correctly, they are automatically taken to the next input boxwhere they can continue typing. As the student types, they are givenimmediate feedback in the form of color-coding. An incorrect letter (onenot found in the word) turns red, indicating that it is completelywrong. A correct letter in the correct position is displayed as green,indicating that it is fully correct, and a correct letter (one found inthe word) placed in an incorrect position is displayed as orange, and itis said to be ½ correct. Students can continue working within a singleinput box until all necessary letters are presented in the correctorder—at which point all the letters might turn from green to black, theinput box may become locked against further input, and the cursor mightjump to the next empty input box.

This type of system does guide the student with instant feedback. Italso guides a student whose spelling is not perfect, but who cannonetheless properly identify words and parts of speech. However, itdoes not provide for a natural input experience and therefore can bejarring and disruptive to the learning process. As soon as the usermakes a mistake they are stopped in their tracks before they cancontinue on to the next word. Students may be able to skip a word orwords, by skipping boxes using their mouse or touch screen, but to do sois not a natural way to transcribe. Furthermore, any intermediate workor feedback received on an incomplete and/or otherwise incorrect wordcan be lost when one moves to a different input box. This is awkward,unexpected interface behavior and also is not a natural way totranscribe.

In addition, the feature whereby an “incorrectly positioned” letter ismarked as “½ correct” is actually problematic and confusing. Forexample, if the user misses an “f” in the word “difficult”, so that itis input as “dificult”—then the letters “icult” after the “f” arecolored orange, which indicates that they are “½ correct.” But in factthe letter group “icult” is completely correct, these letters are in theproper sequence with relation to each other and with relation to theinitial letters, “dif.” The real problem is that a letter, the second“f,” needs to be inserted after the letter group “dif” and before theletter group “icult.”

This type of system fails to indicate when and where letters need to beinserted, and instead erroneously indicates correctly ordered lettersfalling after missing letters as wrong or partially wrong. Our inventionsolves this problem. Correctly sequenced letters in the proper relativepositions with respect to other correct letters are always marked ascorrect, and the insertion points where letters are missing are alwaysindicated. The same is true with words correctly placed in relation toeach other and other correct words, as well as missing words.

In addition, the layout of hangman style input boxes unnecessarily givesaway the number of words required and the relative length of each wordas well. Such information can be a useful clue to assist the learner,but it is best to reserve such information as an extra and optionalclue, depending on teacher's preference, or the student's desire andability level.

Since dictation-to-transcription is a very important pedagogical tooland the type of errors a student might make on the way to a correctanswer is vast, a method of interactive feedback that supports learningand performs scoring in a way that reflects the student's ability isrequired.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This section is for the purpose of summarizing some aspects of thepresent invention and to briefly introduce some preferred embodiments.Simplifications or omissions may be made to avoid obscuring the purposeof the section. Such simplifications or omissions are not intended tolimit the scope of the present invention.

The disclosed dictation systems and methods solve these problems byproviding a computer based transcription exercise that allows foruninterrupted input of contiguous words in a single input area withoutforcing the student to stop and correct spelling while listening. Thisis coupled with dynamic feedback that distinguishes correct words fromincorrect words and also reveals insertion points indicating thelocation of missing words. Furthermore, incorrect words also displaydynamic feedback that distinguishes incorrect letters from correctletters, taking into account proper relative position and sequence ofcharacters, as well as revealing insertion points indicating thelocation of missing letters.

Once the student has included all necessary words, fixed all spellingerrors, and omitted any unnecessary words, the system will indicate thatthis passage transcription is successfully completed. As the studentworks, the system records all student input, tracking any and allomissions, corrections, and the order of letter and word input. Thisdata can be used to determine a score that measures how easy or howdifficult it is for the student to transcribe the audio passage. Whenused as a test this score can be used to assess the student's ability,either for level assessment or for grading. When used for trainingpurposes this score can be used to determine the challenge the passagepresented to the student.

In one aspect the invention is about a dynamically scored dictationtranscription system with dynamic feedback and scoring having at leastone computer processor and associated memory, wherein said systemcomprises an audio playing module, an operator interface moduleproviding a facility for the continuous tracking of entry of text by auser regardless of said text correctness; and a calculation module forperforming a calculation that includes the real time display of saidentered text as well as the display of various indicia designatingcorrect letters, incorrect letters and missing letters and/or words insaid entered text. In another aspect, said calculation module includesthe calculation of the individual data elements of a grading eventmatrix calculation based upon the timeliness and accuracy factors ofsaid user entered data and generating and/or updating the data elementsof the exercise challenge score. In yet another aspect, said calculationmodule generates said exercise challenge score, including the values ofeach said individual data element of said grading event matrix, afterevery user character input.

In another aspect said individual data elements of said grading eventmatrix include at least one of: correct, missing, discontinuous,partial, revealed, number of keystrokes to completion, number of timesthe user repeated the audio, use of aids, use of hints and/or time tocompletion. In yet another aspect, correct letters that are in propersequence with respect to each other and with respect to other correctletters are shown as correct in the feedback regardless of whether anypreceding letters are missing or not. In another aspect, saidcalculation module generates said exercise challenge score, includingthe values of each said individual data element of said grading eventmatrix after every word input. In yet another aspect, said individualdata elements of said grading event matrix include at least one of:correct, missing, discontinuous, partial, revealed, number of keystrokesto completion, number of times the user repeated the audio, use of aids,use of hints and/or time to completion. In another aspect, correctletters that are in proper sequence with respect to each other and withrespect to other correct letters are shown as correct in the feedbackregardless of whether any preceding letters are missing or not.

In one aspect, the invention is about a method for dynamically scoreddictation transcription with dynamic feedback and scoring, the methodbeing performed by at least one computer and associated memory, saidmethod comprising, providing audio through a sound playing module,providing an operator interface module facility for the continuoustracking of entry of text by a user regardless of said text correctnessand providing a calculation module for performing a calculation of thereal time display of said entered text as well as the display of variousindicia designating correct letters, incorrect letters and missingletters and/or words in said entered text. In another aspect, saidcalculation module includes the calculation of the individual dataelements of a grading event matrix calculation based upon the timelinessand accuracy factors of said user entered data and generating and/orupdating the data elements of the exercise challenge score. In yetanother aspect, said calculation module generates said exercisechallenge score, including the values of each said individual dataelement of said grading event matrix, after every user character input.In another aspect, said individual data elements of said grading eventmatrix include at least one of: correct, missing, discontinuous,partial, revealed, number of keystrokes to completion, number of timesthe user repeated the audio, use of aids, use of hints and/or time tocompletion.

In another aspect, correct letters that are in proper sequence withrespect to each other and with respect to other correct letters areshown as correct in the feedback regardless of whether any precedingletters are missing or not. In yet another aspect, said calculationmodule generates said exercise challenge score, including the values ofeach said individual data element of said grading event matrix, afterevery user word input. In another aspect, said individual data elementsof said grading event matrix include at least one of: correct, missing,discontinuous, partial, revealed, number of keystrokes to completion,number of times the user repeated the audio, use of aids, use of hintsand/or time to completion. In yet another aspect, correct letters thatare in proper sequence with respect to each other and with respect toother correct letters are shown as correct in the feedback regardless ofwhether any preceding letters are missing or not.

In one aspect, the invention is about a method of presenting a dictationtranscription exercise, the method being performed by at least onecomputer and associated memory, said method comprising playing apre-recorded audio passage, accepting text input, displaying the textinput in real time with indicia of correct letters, incorrect letters,and the location of missing letters where the accepting of text input isnot affected by erroneous transcription. In another aspect, said indiciaincludes characters of more than one color. In yet another aspect, thedisplay of visual hints other than correct characters in the language ofthe exercise. In another aspect, said method also comprises recording asdata all changes in text input and generating/updating an exercisechallenge score based on such data upon the detection of any change intext input.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent upon examining the following detailed description of anembodiment thereof, taken in conjunction with the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a display screen during a transcription exercise at apoint when nine characters have been entered by a student (in thesefigures, a san serif font is used to represent green lettering and aserif font is used to represent red lettering in the depiction ofscreens), according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 depicts a display screen during the transcription exercise ofFIG. 1, using the conventions of FIG. 1, at a point after the stateshown in FIG. 1 where several more letters have been entered, accordingto an exemplary embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the scoring process, according to an exemplaryembodiment of the invention.

The above-described and other features will be appreciated andunderstood by those skilled in the art from the following detaileddescription, drawings, and appended claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

This section is for the purpose of summarizing some aspects of thepresent invention and to briefly introduce some preferred embodiments.Simplifications or omissions may be made to avoid obscuring the purposeof the section. Such simplifications or omissions are not intended tolimit the scope of the present invention.

To provide an overall understanding of the invention, certainillustrative embodiments and examples will now be described. However, itwill be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the same orequivalent functions and sequences may be accomplished by differentembodiments that are also intended to be encompassed within the spiritand scope of the disclosure. The compositions, apparatuses, systemsand/or methods described herein may be adapted and modified as isappropriate for the application being addressed and that those describedherein may be employed in other suitable applications, and that suchother additions and modifications will not depart from the scope hereof.

Simplifications or omissions may be made to avoid obscuring the purposeof the section. Such simplifications or omissions are not intended tolimit the scope of the present invention. All references, including anypatents or patent applications cited in this specification are herebyincorporated by reference. No admission is made that any referenceconstitutes prior art. The discussion of the references states whattheir authors assert, and the applicants reserve the right to challengethe accuracy and pertinence of the cited documents. It will be clearlyunderstood that, although a number of prior art publications arereferred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission thatany of these documents form part of the common general knowledge in theart.

As used in the specification and claims, the singular forms “a”, “an”and “the” include plural references unless the context clearly dictatesotherwise. For example, the term “a transaction” may include a pluralityof transaction unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. As used inthe specification and claims, singular names or types referenced includevariations within the family of said name unless the context clearlydictates otherwise.

Certain terminology is used in the following description for convenienceonly and is not limiting. The words “lower,” “upper,” “bottom,” “top,”“front,” “back,” “left,” “right” and “sides” designate directions in thedrawings to which reference is made, but are not limiting with respectto the orientation in which the modules or any assembly of them may beused.

It is acknowledged that the term ‘comprise’ may, under varyingjurisdictions, be attributed with either an exclusive or an inclusivemeaning. For the purpose of this specification, and unless otherwisenoted, the term ‘comprise’ shall have an inclusive meaning—i.e. that itwill be taken to mean an inclusion of not only the listed components itdirectly references, but also other non-specified components orelements. This rationale will also be used when the term ‘comprised’ or‘comprising’ is used in relation to one or more steps in a method orprocess.

Referring to FIG. 1, we see a first embodiment of the method, depictedas an example of the proposed dictation exercise system and method. Inthis example the student is presented with the spoken audio “Mary had alittle lamb” 101 and is asked to transcribe it. In a transcription box102, which may be present in a personal device (such as a Tablet,Smartphone, Computer screen or similar), the student has successfullytyped the first word, “Mary,” has skipped the second and third words buthas made an attempt to type the fourth word, “litle,” which the studenthas mistakenly typed as having only one “t.”

Dynamic feedback (performed by at least one computer processor and somememory) is in effect, in real time, as the student types (which includesswiping, touching or otherwise entering data on a physical or virtualkeyboard). The system knows the correct characters to be entered, and bycomparing the entered stream against the correct characters the systemis then capable of determining if letters and/or words are correct,incorrect or misplaced, and further indicate where there exist gaps inthe input of either individual letters or words. For example, the word“Mary” is completely correct and thus is colored completely green. Greenis represented by bold sans serif letters in these figures. The string“litle” contains correct letters in correct relative position to eachother, so these characters are all displayed as green on the user'sscreen as well. However, there is a letter missing, and the visualfeedback indicates this fact by showing a labeled arrow 103 thatindicates a letter needs to be inserted between the “t” and the “l”. Itis up to the student to keep working and figure out what letter it is.Likewise, the dynamic feedback shows the student that there are twowords missing between “Mary” and “little” by a second labeled arrow 104.

In another embodiment, the feedback notation (103, 104) might simplyindicate that at least one word or letter is missing without revealingprecisely how many. In this embodiment, there is no indication that aword or words are missing after the last word input but in anotherembodiment missing terminal words might also be indicated. This might beparticularly appropriate in certain circumstances, for example if thestudent has failed to input anything for some set period of time, forexample 15 seconds. The notation used for feedback indicating missingletters or words could be stylized arrows without text labels, arrows ofdifferent colors, horizontal lines, or other graphic representation.

Referring to FIG. 2 we see a depiction of the same instance of thedictation exercise a short period of time later. At this point thestudent has successfully added the word “a” before the word “little,”has successfully added the missing “t” in “litle”, and has attempted totype the word “lamb,” but has made an error, typing an “n” 201 in placeof the “m”. A serif font is used to indicate red type and it isdisplayed with a strikethrough. In this embodiment, dynamic feedbackmakes this error evident to the student, by styling the incorrect letterwith a strikethrough and coloring the letter red on the user's screen.It is shown here in san serif type. Redundant feedback consisting of anarrow 202 with the text label “incorrect letter” is another option thatmight improve clarity. The word “had” is still missing, and so feedback104 indicates that a word is still missing between “Mary” and “a”. Oncethe student has included all necessary words, fixed all spelling errors,and omitted any unnecessary words, the system will indicate that thispassage transcription is successfully completed.

As the student works, the system records all student input, tracking anyand all omissions, corrections and the order of word input. Among otherdata the system might collect are: total time to completion; totalcorrections/errors before completion; number of times the media loopedor was manually replayed; order in which words were input (in or out ofproper sequence) student accessing of clues, hints; and also tools thatmake completion easier.

This data is used to determine an exercise challenge score that measureshow easy or how difficult it was for the student to transcribe the audiopassage correctly. When used as a test, this score can be used to assessthe student's ability, either for level assessment or for grading. Whenused for training purposes, this exercise challenge score can be used todetermine the challenge the passage presented to the student, andtherefore determine future exercise scheduling. If the score indicatesan extreme challenge, the system might choose an easier audio passagefor the next exercise. If the score indicates a moderate challenge, thesystem might decide to present the same passage to the same student inthe near future.

In one embodiment, we can generate a series of “Scoring Weights” whichmay be computed based on the compiling of a grading matrix, generatedwhile the user works on the transcription. Referring to FIG. 3, we showa grading process, and in Table 1 a grading matrix. The grading matrixconsists of a column for each word in the passage, and a row for eachgrading event 310 during the dictation task. Note that grading eventsmay occur when a word is finished, either by entering word-finalpunctuation or by pressing the spacebar. As each grading event occurs, arow is added to the grading matrix which contains a cell for each wordin the dictated phrase. The cell indicating the modified word ispopulated with a value corresponding to the edit state of the event. Thepossible edit states may include missing, partial, incomplete,discontinuous, accent, revealed, and correct.

A missing edit state indicates that the relevant word remainsunattempted; partial means that some of the letters in the word areincorrect, but not all; incomplete applies to a word that contains onlycorrect letters, but is still missing some; discontinuous refers to acompletely correct word that does not immediately follow the last wordthat was entered; accent occurs when the only mistakes in a word aremistaken use (or absence) of an accent mark; correct refers to acorrectly entered word, input with no mistakes. The revealed edit staterefers to a word revealed or completed by the use of a “reveal”—in someembodiments, “reveals” may be available, e.g. there may be buttonspresent in the user interface which, when pressed, reveal a missing wordor character. These reveals may be consumable—each caption may have alimited number of reveals available. For instance, there may be onereveal for every three words in the caption.

When the first grading event occurs 320, a new row is created for thegrading matrix and filled with cells indicating that all the words inthe dictated phrase are missing 322. This row is then modified toreflect the edit state of each word. The first newly added word isexamined 324 for correctness 330. If it is correct, a determination ismade whether or not the word was entered in the correct order 332. Ifthe word was correct and in the correct order, the cell corresponding tothe word is populated with the correct edit value 340. If it is correct,but out of order, the discontinuous edit value is used 342 (so that evenif said ‘discontinuity’ is not shown, the system still records that factthat a word was entered correctly, albeit out of sequence). Note that inone embodiment, even if we do not “show” discontinuity of input to theuser with any form of unique visual feedback (other than insertionpoints for missing words)—we will still record the fact that a word wasentered correctly but out of sequence, e.g. words were skipped.

If the word was not correct, but there are no incorrect letters 334, anincomplete edit value is inserted 344. If it was neither correct norincomplete (i.e. there are mistakes in the word) and there are onlyaccent mistake (or other similar ‘special’ marks like tilde over an n(ñ), umlaut (ü) and other similar symbols) 336, an accent edit value isused 348. Otherwise, the word has mistakes, and a partial edit value isinserted 346. If there are additional new words added since the lastgrading event 350, this edit state evaluation repeats for the cell(s)corresponding to the other new words(s). Otherwise, the newlyconstructed row is added to the grading matrix 360. For each subsequentgrading event a new row is created by duplicating 326 the most recentrow of the grading matrix, and the input is evaluated using the sameprocess as above, beginning at 324, and then added to the matrix.

Imagine a user types “Mary has lamb,” three grading events aretriggered, one for each word entered. These three grading events arerepresented in the first three rows of Table 1 as Grading Event 1,Grading Event 2, and Grading Event 3. During Grading Event 1 it wasdetermined that “Mary” is correct. During Grading Event 2 it wasdetermined that “has” is partial (partially correct/has mistakes).During Grading Event 3 it was determined that “lamb” is correct but wasinput in a discontinuous order (skipping words).

The subsequent three rows of Table 1 represent Grading Events 4 through6. The user has corrected “has” to read “had,” triggering Grading Event4 with the new edit state correct for the word “had.” The user thenreveals the word “a” by using a “reveal”, triggering Grading Event 5,wherein the word “a” is recorded as having the edit state revealed.Finally, the user adds the missing word “little,” triggering GradingEvent 6 with a correct edit state recorded for the word.

The final resulting matrix is shown in full in Table 1. The italicizedcell in each row reflects the edit state corresponding to the changewhich occurred during the grading event. The grading matrix may be usedto produce a “challenge” score, indicating how difficult the exercisewas for the learner. In order to convert the grading matrix into anumeric score, each of the edit states is assigned a value reflectinghow much of a challenge it represented to the learner. The sum of editvalues for a given word (a column of the grading matrix) amounts to the“challenge value” for that word, as shown in the final row of Table 1.

The challenge values of each word are then averaged to give a challengescore for the phrase. Given example edit values of 0 for correct, 0.01for missing, 0.25 for discontinuous, 1.0 for partial, 2.0 for revealededit states, the above scenario would be given a challenge score of(0+2.01+2.04+0.05+0.27)/5=0.874, a middle range score, indicating thatthe exercise was fairly challenging. A perfect answer on this exercisewould have a challenge score of (0+0.01+0.02+0.03+0.04)/5=0.02.

In one embodiment, there may be a general grading key, e.g. 0.05 to 0.2may be classified as a “Low challenge”, 0.2 to 1 as a “Mediumchallenge”, 1 to 1.5 as “Hard challenge” and anything over 1.5 beclassified as “Extremely Hard challenge”.

TABLE 1 Mary had a little lamb Grading Event 1 correct missing missingmissing missing (0)   (0.01) (0.01) (0.01) (0.01) Grading Event 2correct partial missing missing missing (0)   (1.0) (0.01) (0.01) (0.01)Grading Event 3 correct partial missing missing discont. (0)   (1.0)(0.01) (0.01) (0.25) Grading Event 4 correct correct missing missingcorrect (0) (0) (0.01) (0.01) (0)   Grading Event 5 correct correctrevealed missing correct (0) (0) (2.0)  (0.01) (0)   Grading Event 6correct correct correct correct correct (0) (0) (0)   (0)   (0)  Challenge Value 0   2.01 2.04 0.05 0.27

Other factors may also be included in determining the challenge value(word level) and/or challenge score (phrase level) calculation, such asnumber of keystrokes to completion, time to completion, the number oftimes the user repeated the audio, and the use of aids and hints such astranslation or slow play and the like. Other scores may be calculated inaddition to the exercise challenge value and/or exercise challengescore, such as a “completion score,” simply measuring the number ofwords completed without the use of a reveal. Any of these scores may beused alone or in conjunction to determine future tasks and to indicate auser's progress and/or proficiency either to the user or to someoneelse, such as a teacher or test giver.

All of the above mentioned aspects may persist through subsequent visitsby the user to the same exercise until they complete the exercise. Thatis, the user may move to a new question, then return later, and thechallenge score modifications will accumulate.

It may be of notice to those skilled in the art that there are manypossible variations to the embodiments described above. The informationabout correct, incorrect, misplaced, and missing characters, as well asthe time to complete, can provide for many other specific gradingmethods and calculations, possibly with weightings appropriate for aspecific embodiment.

In one embodiment, feedback is updated upon each keystroke. In anotherembodiment, feedback is updated upon each character entry that signifiesword completion, such as a space, a comma, a period, a question mark, asemicolon, a colon, or an exclamation point. This latter variation maybe less distracting to the student than the display changing after everycharacter. In another embodiment, the system may otherwise “monitor”each letter as it is input in relation with previously input letters andautonomously trigger a grading event when enough data is present to givethe user accurate and meaningful feedback. In another embodiment,feedback may be the same as the embodiment above with the addition of anupdate after a period of inactivity, for example 15 seconds.

In one embodiment the exercise might present a continuous program (forexample a story, or a TV show, or radio story) as a series of dictationexercises. As the student progresses, she is taken through the program.One class of alternate embodiments involves “gamification.” For example,clues in the form of “hangman” representation and visible scoring thatdisplays “game currency” (e.g. points). The currency might used to “buy”access clues/hints.

Another whole class of alternate embodiments involves the display. Therecan be a feedback area distinct from the input box, or video or stillimages may complement the audio presentation and provide visual hints. Awide variety of visual hints may be used including showing part, or all,of the passage in a second language; allowing the student to slow theaudio; and providing a number of “free words” or “free letters.”

Note that the audio may be presented to the user via speakers orheadsets (both wired and wireless), as part of a video and in any otherform or module that would be functional to the user's hearing.

Another class of alternate embodiments involve vocal input, rather thantext input, by the student using a system microphone. Voice recognitionconverts the spoken input to text, which is compared against the correctpassage in the same manner as text input.

CONCLUSION

In concluding the detailed description, it should be noted that it wouldbe obvious to those skilled in the art that many variations andmodifications can be made to the preferred embodiment withoutsubstantially departing from the principles of the present invention.Also, such variations and modifications are intended to be includedherein within the scope of the present invention as set forth in theappended claims. Further, in the claims hereafter, the structures,materials, acts and equivalents of all means or step-plus functionelements are intended to include any structure, materials or acts forperforming their cited functions.

It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments of thepresent invention, particularly any “preferred embodiments” are merelypossible examples of the implementations, merely set forth for a clearunderstanding of the principles of the invention. Any variations andmodifications may be made to the above-described embodiments of theinvention without departing substantially from the spirit of theprinciples of the invention. All such modifications and variations areintended to be included herein within the scope of the disclosure andpresent invention and protected by the following claims.

The present invention has been described in sufficient detail with acertain degree of particularity. The utilities thereof are appreciatedby those skilled in the art. It is understood to those skilled in theart that the present disclosure of embodiments has been made by way ofexamples only and that numerous changes in the arrangement andcombination of parts may be resorted without departing from the spiritand scope of the invention as claimed. Accordingly, the scope of thepresent invention is defined by the appended claims rather than theforgoing description of embodiments.

We claim:
 1. A dynamically scored dictation transcription system withdynamic feedback and scoring having at least one computer processor andassociated memory, wherein said system comprises: an audio playingmodule; an operator interface module providing a facility for thecontinuous tracking of entry of text by a user regardless of said textcorrectness; and a calculation module for performing a calculation thatincludes the real time display of said entered text as well as thedisplay of various indicia designating correct letters, incorrectletters and missing letters and/or words in said entered text.
 2. thesystem of claim 1 wherein; said calculation module includes thecalculation of the individual data elements of a grading event matrixcalculation based upon the timeliness and accuracy factors of said userentered data; and generating and/or updating the data elements of theexercise challenge score.
 3. the system of claim 2 wherein; saidcalculation module generates said exercise challenge score, includingthe values of each said individual data element of said grading eventmatrix, after every user character input.
 4. the system of claim 3wherein; said individual data elements of said grading event matrixinclude at least one of: correct, missing, discontinuous, partial,revealed, number of keystrokes to completion, number of times the userrepeated the audio, use of aids, use of hints and/or time to completion.5. the system of claim 4 wherein; correct letters that are in propersequence with respect to each other and with respect to other correctletters are shown as correct in the feedback regardless of whether anypreceding letters are missing or not.
 6. the system of claim 2 wherein;said calculation module generates said exercise challenge score,including the values of each said individual data element of saidgrading event matrix after every word input.
 7. the system of claim 6wherein; said individual data elements of said grading event matrixinclude at least one of: correct, missing, discontinuous, partial,revealed, number of keystrokes to completion, number of times the userrepeated the audio, use of aids, use of hints and/or time to completion.8. the system of claim 7 wherein; correct letters that are in propersequence with respect to each other and with respect to other correctletters are shown as correct in the feedback regardless of whether anypreceding letters are missing or not.
 9. A method for dynamically scoreddictation transcription with dynamic feedback and scoring, the methodbeing performed by at least one computer and associated memory, saidmethod comprising: providing audio through a sound playing module;providing an operator interface module facility for the continuoustracking of entry of text by a user regardless of said text correctness;and providing a calculation module for performing a calculation of thereal time display of said entered text as well as the display of variousindicia designating correct letters, incorrect letters and missingletters and/or words in said entered text.
 10. the method of claim 9wherein; said calculation module includes the calculation of theindividual data elements of a grading event matrix calculation basedupon the timeliness and accuracy factors of said user entered data; andgenerating and/or updating the data elements of the exercise challengescore.
 11. the method of claim 10 wherein; said calculation modulegenerates said exercise challenge score, including the values of eachsaid individual data element of said grading event matrix, after everyuser character input.
 12. the method of claim 11 wherein; saidindividual data elements of said grading event matrix include at leastone of: correct, missing, discontinuous, partial, revealed, number ofkeystrokes to completion, number of times the user repeated the audio,use of aids, use of hints and/or time to completion.
 13. the method ofclaim 12 wherein; correct letters that are in proper sequence withrespect to each other and with respect to other correct letters areshown as correct in the feedback regardless of whether any precedingletters are missing or not.
 14. the method of claim 10 wherein; saidcalculation module generates said exercise challenge score, includingthe values of each said individual data element of said grading eventmatrix, after every user word input.
 15. the method of claim 14 wherein;said individual data elements of said grading event matrix include atleast one of: correct, missing, discontinuous, partial, revealed, numberof keystrokes to completion, number of times the user repeated theaudio, use of aids, use of hints and/or time to completion.
 16. themethod of claim 15 wherein; correct letters that are in proper sequencewith respect to each other and with respect to other correct letters areshown as correct in the feedback regardless of whether any precedingletters are missing or not.
 17. A method of presenting a dictationtranscription exercise, the method being performed by at least onecomputer and associated memory, said method comprising: playing apre-recorded audio passage, accepting text input, displaying the textinput in real time with indicia of correct letters, incorrect letters,and the location of missing letters; where the accepting of text inputis not affected by erroneous transcription.
 18. The method of claim 17wherein: said indicia includes characters of more than one color. 19.The method of claim 17 further comprising: the display of visual hintsother than correct characters in the language of the exercise.
 20. Themethod of claim 17 further comprising: recording as data all changes intext input and generating/updating an exercise challenge score based onsuch data upon the detection of any change in text input.